


An Offer She Can't Refuse

by ThaddeusBandido



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: 15 Days of FatT, 15 Days of FatT 2018, Bluff City, Canon Compliant, Gen, Spoilers for Bluff City Episodes 01 and 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-20 18:04:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13723110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThaddeusBandido/pseuds/ThaddeusBandido
Summary: Tawny Buck goes out to lunch.Written for 15 Days of Friends at the Table 2018, Day 7 - "Get Ready"





	An Offer She Can't Refuse

Former IRS agent and current local boxing legend Tawny Buck entered the Hammer’s Head Bar and Grill with little fanfare.

She was thankful that her notoriety was limited to folks who were more invested in the Bluff City minor boxing circuit, in all honesty. Her meeting today had the potential to attract the wrong type of attention. Tawny stalled near the entrance, casting her eyes across the small, lunchtime crowd of patrons. She heard the slightly tinny voice of Stevie Nicks come through the speakers.

_Just like the white-winged dove, sings a song, sounds like she’s singing—_

After a few more seconds of searching, Tawny spotted the blonde pixie cut she recognized all too well.

Maggie Darcy was unaware of Tawny’s presence, already working on a wedge salad with some mozzarella curds and cherry tomatoes. In her mind, Tawny gave this place some points for trying to class it up a little. Maggie was bouncing her fork, stuck with a chunk of iceberg lettuce, along with the hits of the song.

_Ooh, baby, ooh, said ooh._

Belatedly, Tawny realized that Maggie having food in front of her already is probably a bad thing. She muttered to herself quietly, "Good lord, I'm not that late, am I?" as the intrusive thought got her legs moving toward the booth a little too quickly to be considered casual. Out of her peripheral vision, Maggie noticed Tawny and waved her to the booth.

The small talk was awkward but still serviceable for filling the air, especially after their order was taken by a wandering waiter. Tawny talked up the booming success of the Firebird Gym. Maggie talked about her check-ins with higher-ups in the IRS. Up until that point, Tawny was considering how good of a job her former boss was doing at not looking or sounding like a cop near the Atlantic City boardwalk.

A familiar guitar riff and whispered lyrics over the sound system of the restaurant captured Tawny’s momentary attention.

_Tick, uh-Tock, uh-Tick, doot-doot-doo-doo—_

“It’s nice to eat something that passes as fresh produce every once in a while,” Maggie commented flippantly for lack of meaningful conversation, inadvertently bringing Tawny’s attention back to the table. The waiter dropped off their lunch plates before Tawny could respond. Maggie had a chicken sandwich to accompany the wedge salad she was still picking at. For Tawny, a barbeque burger with a side of cheese fries was exactly what she needed. Tawny immediately grabbed a fork and stabbed a few fries, savoring a bite for a few seconds before responding.

“Cheese fries,” Tawny started, “are kind of a Square One, for me.”

Maggie stared at her blankly, before offering a singular, “What?”

“Nice meals are great, but a lot of _this,_ ” Tawny gestured vaguely in circles between them with her fork as she fished for a word. "Um."

"Fiasco?" Maggie supplied.

"Yeah, but not quite the word I'm looking for."

"Travesty of law enforcement?"

Tawny made a face at that. "We got Sonny in the end, so no...?"

" _Situation_?"

"We'll go with it. A lot of this  _situation_ , for me," Tawny emphasized, “started with cheese fries.” Maggie squinted slightly, silently beckoning Tawny to continue her attempt at wisdom.

Tawny did not wither or waver even slightly. “It’s not the best meal, or the most well-rounded, but it’s a lot of quick fuel to burn quickly.” She took a quick break from waxing philosophic to eat some more fries.

_I wanna fly like an eagle, to the sea—_

After a beat, Tawny continued, “And when you’re down and out, you need fuel in the tank, Maggie. You know what for?” Maggie staked a mozzarella curd on her plate and waited for the other shoe to drop. When she looked back at Tawny, who had snagged another set of fries for another bite, she realized that she wouldn’t get an answer without feeding the obvious lead-in question.

_Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’—_

“What for, Tawny?”

Tawny finished chewing before imparting her knowledge. “Training. Boxing. Gotta commit to something, even if you only got the time and money to commit to one thing, you know?”

Maggie nodded reverently, and speared a cherry tomato to go with the curd.

The rest of their meal was spent in companionable silence, attention wholly on the food in front of them. That didn’t stop Tawny from sparing some brainpower to size up the situation.

The two of them weren't exactly close friends. Maggie wasn't someone who made a lot of social calls, either.

Tawny was also tipped off by the fact that Maggie slipped her credit card to the waiter for the bill without seeing it or even asking to split it with her (despite her protests _—you know I can afford this, right?_ ). Maggie simply waved it off as, in her words, "seeing as few receipts as possible for a little while." Tawny wasn’t a master schemer, obviously, but she wasn’t an idiot. She tried not to stare at her former boss, as Maggie did some mental math to add a generous tip to the bill.

Something was brewing in the mind of Maggie Darcy.

Nothing disastrous had happened _yet..._ However, there was nothing for Tawny to do as she continued to wait for shit to hit the fan while the waiter came by and collected the finished bill.  Then, as Maggie readjusted herself in her seat to square her shoulders, Tawny reflexively braced herself for the worst.

Finally, Maggie showed her hand. “Tawny, I bet you’re wondering why I called you to come have some lunch.”

“Sure.” A pause. “I’m mostly waiting for you to get to it.”

Maggie smiled. “I’ve got a job for you. One that I think you’re… uniquely suited to handle.” The implication hit Tawny square in the jaw, and Maggie didn’t let up before following up with the confirmation Tawny didn't want to hear. “There’s one loose thread from the sting that we need to take care of.”

Tawny let a hundred denials run through her mind before settling on a response. “You know, I got out of this business, Maggie. And I don’t…” She trailed off, and readjusted her train of thought. “I’m doing fine, and I don’t need to do it anymore.” Tawny realized she wasn’t looking at Maggie and snapped her eyes back to her, who was considering Tawny with a sidelong glance. Slowly, Maggie reached and pulled out a large... something from under the table.

Once the object was no longer obscured by the tablecloth, Tawny quickly realized two things: first, that Maggie was sliding a _bulletproof vest_ across the table to her, and second, Maggie must have been dead serious about this job. Some of the velcro on the vest caught the tablecloth slightly before giving way as Maggie rotated the vest to showcase the large block lettering of ANIMAL CONTROL sewn in on a large patch across the back.

“You’ve dealt with this thing before.”

Tawny tried not to let her wince show on her face, but she was instantly sure of her failure when Maggie smirked as she collected her purse and got out of her seat. “Get ready, Tawny. Use the rest of the day to get your things together. I’ve already got all the necessary paperwork filled out and filed. We need to start in the next few days, unless we want this hell bird to reign terror on Bluff City _again_."

"That goddamn wretched bird," Tawney groused just loud enough for Maggie to hear. She pulled her eyes away from the vest to glance at Maggie. Tawny felt resigned when she finally asked, "How did you know that I would agree to this?"

With a final tug on her purse, Maggie turned her own words against her. "Gotta commit to something, right?" Without waiting for a response, Maggie began to walk out of the restaurant. "I'll get a hold of you when we need to move." 

Still in the booth, Tawny returned her gaze to the vest sitting on the table, as she resisted dragging both hands down her face.

She was going to have to deal with this extremely pointy, half-melted muppet of a bird, one way or another.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first published work ever, and the entirety of the proofreading was done by 3AM Me, which is the best Me that I can be. (For writing, at least.) It was then summarily panic-reviewed by a much-more-awake Me the next day which is, weirdly enough, also the best Me that I can be (for reviewing).
> 
> If you see any typos, tense weirdness, etc., just let me know!
> 
> I loved the end of the Bluff City Fiasco game. If you're not on the FatT Patreon yet, you gotta (if you can reasonably do so). Bluff City regularly knocks it out of the park and I can't get enough of it.
> 
> I tried to find as many classic rock songs about birds as possible, but these were the two that I settled on. Also: Maggie absolutely loaded the restaurant's jukebox with about 45 minutes worth of classic rock songs about birds. She wanted to drive the point home.


End file.
